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The document aims against the Brazilian Government "to disastrous execution of the actions of health, with a frightening number of deaths, already broadly propagated by the international and national media, and the absence of recognition and implementation of a native education system truly differentiated, and the paralysis of the trials of native lands recognition".

The FDDI closes the document reinforcing all the demands of the Native April, an open letter of native’s mobilization, calling the international solidarity against what they qualify as a "genocide scenery”

Proclamation no. 1017 is a President’s declaration of State of Emergency that believed to be an order to take a direct totalitarian control to suppress political dissent against the regime. The proclamation was declared during the middle of commemorating the 1986 People Power anniversary after she assessed the national situation, saying that the Left, Right and Center is, "in tactical alliance and engaged in a concerted and systematic conspiracy to bring down the duly constituted government elected in May 2004."

President Arroyo was accused of rigging the 2004 elections that maintained her seat of power. She was also the sole authority who raised taxes of basic necessities, assassination of media persons and radical political personalities, cuddles gambling lords, and protects Military Generals who were accused of corruption. These acts of the President foiled unrest among the common masses, rank-in-file military soldiers and junior officers who called upon to oust her regime. Opposition politicians also joined the call to unseat the President from power.

Last week the sailors went on strike, blocking all the ports of Greece. The effort of the ship-owners to ban the strike failed, since it was judged legal by the Court. According to the decision of the Nationwide Sailors' Federation, the strike will go on till Friday.

Wednesday 22/2: The tension increased early in the morning, when the Ministry of Commercial Sailing announced a recruitment of the sailors who were on strike. Dozens of unions, federations, student-unions, organisations, groups, collectives and people all over the country, mobilized immediately, in order to make solidarity actions to the sailors on strike. Clashes with the riot police using tear-gas, occurred in Peireaus port. There was a roadblock set-up on Iroon Polytehniou and Stachtouri str. , preventing trucks from accessing the port. Update from Patra port.

Thursday 23/2:Public call for keeping on the sailors' struggle since 6am. Several sorts of employees walk-out in solidarity. The Sailors' Federation decided to pause the strike on Thursday 6pm

Factory occupied in Thessaloniki

The Industry of Phosphor Fertilizers has been occupied by the employees since the 12th of January, after the decision of the Emporiki and National Banks to close it out. The employees had a a march in Thessaloniki centre, while solidarity actions took place in Patra, Athens 1,2, Xanthi and Komotini.

Since Monday morning, February 20th 2006, a few dozen people occupy the building site for a youth prison (called EPM in french, standing for Établissement Pénitentiaire pour Mineurs) in Orvault, in the suburbs of Nantes, France.

Part of the activists are occupying trees, in which they have set up four tree-houses. Meanwhile, others gather on the ground in solidarity. By this action, activists intend to prevent the construction of this new prison, since occupied trees are to be cut for the building work to start.

Last October 20th, a first demonstration against the "EPM" had taken place (see report [fr]), during which some 200 participants had already invaded the building site, putting up banners on the highway and pulling out topographic piquets, to slow down the construction process.

Updates:

2006-02-22: in solidarity with the tree sitting action, a crane belonging to Bouygues (biggest builder of prisons and detention centres in France) has been occupied in Nantes, and then evicted by the GIPN (antiterrorist police). All participants to the action were arrested by the police. While those who were on-ground were released after an hour at the station and an ID check, those who were in the crane have been kept in custody for 9 hours and charged with "physical obstruction of a public building work".

2006-02-21: lots of police have arrived, and have successfully pushed away the group people gathering on the ground, all of which managed to leave without being identified. Those who are occupying trees are still there.

2006-02-20: police & media were on site. Police called in re-inforcements, but didn't make a move, and finally left. Camp construction went on, in spite of persistant rain and cold throughout the first half of the day.

Stop the Shell Pipeline! Protests have taken place in Ireland, England, Scotland and Sweden to publicise the campaign ahead of the re-opening of Rossport Solidarity Camp, a protest camp supporting a community based struggle against Shell in the West of Ireland. On Friday 17th there was a Rossport Solidarity Demo in Liverpool, a critical mass style bike ride and occupation of Shell garages happened on Saturday in Nottingham [picture reports 1 | 2] and in north London London Rising Tide organised a blockade of a Shell garage which was closed for four hours [reports 1, 2]. All this coincided with a Rossport Solidarity Camp speaking tour of Scotland and England. Meanwhile in Ireland, the doors to Shell's main offices in Dublin were D locked shut, there was also a blockade of a Statoil garage in Cork and two solidarity meetings.

In Rossport Irish residents & supporters continue to obstruct the building of a dangerous gas pipeline. Last year five men from Rossport were jailed for contempt of court for refusing to obey the High Court order not to interfere with the construction of the Corrib gas pipeline. They were expected to be back at the High Court also on Friday 17th, potentially facing more time in jail. In November '05 the Rossport Five were released after 94 days in jail.

Since late Tuesday afternoon, the Free Pass Movement (MPL) of Aracaju (Sergipe – Brazil) has occupied the headquarters of the Supervision of Transports and Transit (SMTT) of the city, in protest against the refusal of the agency to convoke an public audience to openly discuss the tariffs of bus with the population. The superintendent, Bosco Mendonça, has refused to convoke the audience, arguing that people already would be clarified about all the questions regarding the public transportation.

The MPL Aracaju asks for that people sensible to the cause appear on the occupied agency, bringing food and support to the students.

In May 2003, an affinity group blockaded the Aubonne Bridge in order to stop a G8 delegation from reaching the summit in Evian. The police cut the climbing rope and nearly killed two activists. Now the policeman who cut the rope and his senior officer are in court. From the 13th to the 15th of February three judges presided over the trial. More than 25 witnesses including senior police officers and activists who were on the bridge were scheduled to give evidence during the trial in Nyon. The officers are charged with causing severe bodily harm with negligence. Martin Shaw fell some 25 metres and his injuries included a broken back, broken pelvis and a shattered foot. Despite numerous operations, he will never make a complete recovery. The charges also include bodily harm against the second climber, Gesine Wenzel who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for more than a year.

This court case is the result of three-years of public and legal pressure after the initial judge appointed to investigate the case showed clear bias in refusing to pursue the matter. In Switzerland, the police usually enjoy a relatively high-degree of impunity and are protected by all manner of legal bureaucracy. Despite many complaints against the police having been made, this are the first such charges to be brought to court in over twenty years. The verdict will be announces Friday, 17th of February at 11.45 am.

The Aubonne-Bridge collective has released a political statement in which they acknowledge the contradiction inherent in pursuing a legal case through a justuce system whose legitimacy they don't recognize, while outlining the reasons in which they have still chosen to do this. These reasons include challenging the impunity of the police, trying to highlight the cracks in the façade of liberal-democracy and to promote a greater awareness of the incompetence and violence that the police are capable of.

The trial is taking place at the same time that 29 police officers in Italy are in court for a variety of acts of violence and brutality against protestors during the G8 summit in Genoa.

Students, workers, shack dwellers and academics at South Africa’s largest teaching university, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), are now in their 6th day of a militant strike against corporatisation. Thousands have marched under the banners of education for all, decent working conditions and academic freedom. One of the university’s five campuses is under heavily armed police occupation and serious clashes between police and strikers look increasingly likely.

Previous attempts to arrest the rapid corporatisation of the university have been dealt with brutally. In 2000 a student, Michael Makhabane, was shot dead by police in a peaceful protest against the exclusion of poor students. No action has ever been taken against the police offer responsible. In 1996 a mass strike was crushed when then vice-chancellor, Marcus Ballintulo, invited white paramilitaries onto campus ‘to restore order’.

The strike currently underway has specifically targeted the ongoing exclusion of poor students from the university, the super exploitation of workers and contract academic staff, attempts to evict shack dwellers living on the campus and various forms of corporate authoritarianism. These include the exclusion of unions from decision making structures, attempts by the university management to intimidate staff supporting radical social movements off the campus, the subordination of research agendas to the demands of big business, the World Bank and donor agencies and the banning of radical academic Ashwin Desai. Desai was fired and banned from the university after leading the 1996 strike. That banning was lifted in 2003 and no longer has any legal standing. Yet the vice-chancellor, Malegepuru Makgoba, unilaterally rebanned Desai from the university in later 2005 fearing that he would again lead protests against corporatisation. In fact there is a whole new generation of union activists willing to organise against corporatisation. But the banning led to protests from the respected Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, radical intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, Antonio Negri and Naomi Klein and massive international campaign for academic freedom. A number of academic associations in Africa are contemplating a boycott of UKZN. Makgoba’s response has been to accuse Chomsky of 'dementia' and to claim that academics organising against corporatisation are 'lazy'.

The "Prestes Maia", by far the largest squatted highrise building on the South American continent, is under threat of eviction. With its 468 families, accounting for more than 1600 previously homeless people, including children, elderly and disabled, the building will shortly be returned to its 'lawful' owner, Mr. Hamuche & Co., who in the last 15 years of 'ownership' accumulated a debt in municipal taxes of some 5 million reais (approx. 2.2 million dollars / 2.1 million euros), which is more than the building is worth. This enormous debt, together with long years of abandonment, should well justify (even according to law) a claim for the building to become public property by the local municipality, but nevertheless will be returned to its owner, putting hundreds of people back onto the streets.

The 468 families, united in the Downtown Roofless Movement (Movimento Sem Teto do Centro or MSTC) of São Paulo, have lived in the 22-storey highrise since 2002. The building had simply been closed down for years and left in deplorable condition, serving as shelter for rats and cockroaches, as is the case of many buildings in downtown São Paulo. The new residents cleaned out tonnes of rubbish and litter (200 trucks to be exact!), organized it, expelled drugs and other criminal bosses always there to take advantage, turning it into an exciting and lively human dwelling.

Last January 27th, the family's representatives met with the police authorities in charge of the forthcoming eviction. During the meeting, it was made clear that the action will take place somewhere between the 15th and 21st of February -- an exact date was not given for 'strategic' reasons – and that the troops will be 'prepared for the worst'. Yesterday, february 7th, the residents of Prestes Maia’s building block the street in front of the occupation. They stayed there for almost 2 hours. This act was an attempt to bring more attention to the situation of the residents and to the possible eviction, scheduled to take place next week.

PASIG CITY, PHILIPPINES -- At least seventy-four persons, mostly poor elderly women, perished and more than 300 others were injured Saturday (Feb. 4) in a stampede of people joining the first anniversary of a popular TV game show.

The stampede reportedly broke out at around 6:30 am as thousands pressed towards the iron gates of a stadium, venue of contests and raffles of big cash prizes including two million pesos. Most of the casualties, who have stayed in front of the gates for days in order to be able to join the game show's contests, were crushed to their death.

The tragedy brought the nation into mourning and renewed calls for immediate and long-term measures to address poverty. TV network ABS-CBN is under fire for its negligence and exploitation of the poor.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), a foundation whose membership consists of chief executives of the world's richest corporations, some national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists, met last week in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. This neo-liberal institution has been a focal point of the extra-parliamentary anti-capitalist movement in Switzerland for the last few years.

In July of 2005, returning from a protest against the coup d’état and the occupation of Haiti in front of the Brazilian embassy in Miami, Father Gerard Jean Juste was surprised at the airport in Port-au-Prince: accused of “conspiring against the government,” he was detained by the National Police in the Haitian capital. Once released from custody, just a few days afterward he was imprisoned again, on the 21st. This time, he was accused of killing a journalist. The assassination occurred while Jean Juste was still in Miami, discarding any possibility of the continuation of the process. The organization Human Rights First initiated a campaign for the immediate liberation of Jean Juste, collecting 1,053 signatures. The reason that Juste was detained is connected to his work as an activist for human rights and an opposer of the political-military occupation idealized through the U.S. and France and administered by Brasil since February of 2004. Juste is one of the principal supporters of Lavalas, the party of the deposed President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Also, he demonstrated interest in being nominated for the elections which will be realized on February 7th. During the time he is imprisoned this cannot occur.

On the 11th January the witnesses hearings restarted in court for the trial against the policemen who raided the Diaz school on the 21st July 2001, at the end of the G8 protests in Genoa.

During the 19th and the 20th hearings, which took place on the 11th and on the 19th January respectively, several British witnesses recalled their experience in the Diaz school and in the facing media centre.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a 65-count indictment on January 20, 2006 alleging that 12 people were involved in Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activities in the United States spanning five years from 1996 to 2001. As a result of the Grand Jury investigation in Eugene, Oregon, the suspects have been charged in 17 arson and sabotage attacks on federal and private facilities in five states. No one was harmed in any of the incidents. Ongoing grand juries in San Diego and San Francisco are also targeting environmentalists and animal rights defenders.

The nation-wide sweep of arrests, dubbed “Operation Backfire”, has been declared by the FBI as a major hit to environmentalists and animal rights activists who engage in destruction of property as a means to defend wilderness and lives of animals. However, many suspect that the string of arrests falls in line with decades-long FBI covert intelligence operations aimed at disrupting and discrediting political movements. Part of COINTELPRO and other intelligence agendas, the FBI has been engaged in domestic surveillance activities and have been falsely targeting political activists since the 1960s.

Activism in Scotland experienced a boost in the months following the G8 protests in July 2005. Two social centres – Saorsa (gaelic for “freedom”) and Chalkboard opened in Glasgow, and the Indymedia Scotland Infoseed Hacklab in Edinburgh.The legal support group observes the court cases relating to the G8 [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] and provides support for the defendants. The Campaign to Save the Cameo was successful and the privatisation of council housing could be prevented [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ]. The Glasgow based initiative Make Borders History continued after the G8 in Glasgow as Open Borders Glasgow with direct actions to prevent deportations and morning raids [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]. The Zapatista Solidarity groups raise publicity and prepare enthusiastically for their big solidarity party on the 16th of february for their twinned community in Chiapas [ Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group | 1 | 2 | 3 ].

In an effort to Stop Climate Change and prevent further roadbuilding for individual transport, Friends of the Earth Scotland stopped the building of the M74 Extension, south of Glasgow, also leading through the Cre8 Community Garden, with a legal challenge.The main action momentarily is the resistance against building the Dalkeith Bypass through a big park acting as a wildlife resort, recreational facility, part of Edinburgh's Green Belt and fields for animals. The campaign includes an unlikely liason of a citizen campaign “Save Dalkeith Park”, ecowarriers occupying the trees, and resistance in the Scottish Parliament and beyond. Last Monday, however, a specialist team started evicting the four protest camps. Despite three protesters slowing down the eviction by nearly a week with refusing to give up their hiding place in a tunnel, the eviction of the last and main protest site is anticipated to start today. [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 ]

BAMAKO, MALI, 19 JANUARY 2006 - The World Social Forum is an alternative to the World Economic Forum, a yearly meeting of business and political elites in Davos, Switzerland. Believing that "Another World is Possible", the World Social Forum is a space for exchanging information and experiences of fighting neo-liberalism. The past decade has seen a wide range of popular resistance in Africa. The Forum will offer an opportunity for dialogue and reflection on those fights and the alternatives they offer in the global project to build a better world based on solidarity and common struggle, not competition and war.

This year's World Social Forum is being held simultaneously in Bamako (Mali), Caracas (Venezuela), and Karachi (Pakistan). The Bamako World Social Forum opens today, the 19th of January 2006. Approximately 30,000 activists from across the region and the world are expected to attend. This is the first World Social Forum to be held in Africa.

The commander of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) forces, General Urano Bacellar, was found dead on January 7th with a bullet in his head. It is unclear whether he was murdered or whether it was suicide, but it is known that he was constantly being pushed to escalate the occupation of local neighbourhoods in Haiti. In particular, they demanded that UN troops occupied and acted with "more energy" in the local districts of Porto Principe, with the justification being that in those areas were groups involved in recent kidnappings. Human rights activists state that the real reason is the persecution of opponents to the current regime.

The Brazilian government, who are trying to negotiate a permanent position on the UN Security Council, does not want to give up the command of the troops in Haiti. So far, Brasil has spent 340 milion Reais (almost $150 million USD) on MINUSTAH, with which the result has been almost 300 deaths and the destruction of a number of houses in the local districts.

The death of the general has lefts doubts about the politic scene on the country. Presidential and parliamentary elections have been again schedual fot february 7th. However nothing garantees a substantial change in relation to the current gobernment of Gerard Latortue and Boniface, impossed after 2004 that took Jean Aristide off the power. Opponents candidates, such as Lavas, are facing problems to be accepted. An exemple of it is father Gerard Jean Juste, that is arrested and forbbiden to registerd. The opponents to the government, friendlly or not of Aristide, states that the elections are illegitimate, and fears repression of MINUSTAH, that should use violence to contain probable protests on the districts during the election.

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, 1 JANUARY 2005 - The University of KwaZulu-Natal's decision to bar social commentator Ashwin Desai from taking on any paying or honorary positions at the university has prompted international academics to question academic freedom at the institution.

Ashwin applied for funding earlier this year to undertake research on the history of race and sport in South Africa. He's clearly got the skills; his scholarship on the politics of poverty in Durban, his deep engagement with anti-apartheid struggle, and his history of research on sport in South Africa – including co-editing "Blacks in Whites - A century of Cricket Struggles in KwaZulu-Natal" - clearly mark him as qualified for the job. But the Vice-Chancellor, Malegapuru William Makgoba, instructed the selection committee at the University of KwaZulu-Natal not to consider Ashwin's application. Makgoba also prevented Ashwin from coming back to campus even as an unpaid honorary fellow.

On January 1, 2006, the convoy that accompanied Subcomandante Insurgent Marcos departed from the Garrucha Caracol to San Cristobal de las Casas. With that marked the the first step in the new Zapatista political initiative known as The Other Campaign, which hopes to forge an anti-capitalist alliance of the non-electoral Left in Mexico. The journey culminated with a public rally in the Cathedral Plaza, known as the Plaza of Resistance, where members of Zapatista Command spoke. Nearly 300 people of the Highlands region of the state of Chiapas, who have signed on to the zapatista initiative gathered with subcomandante Marcos, now called Delegate Zero, in his first day of the Other Campaign.